Pitchfork launches pre-release album streaming feature

Pitchfork has announced that it is launching a new album preview feature called Pitchfork Advance, which it hopes will stand out from all the other pre-release album streaming features out there by having nice artwork. The first album to be made available is ‘Fade’, by Yo La Tengo, which is due for release later this month.

The site’s founder Ryan Schreiber told Mashable: “In most cases, the artwork we publish will come from the album’s actual packaging, but there will be some other material that’s created exclusively for Pitchfork Advance. We can do a lot more with this platform than just reproduce static images and text. I’ve been surprised by the lack of innovation in digital album art over the last decade, especially because artists and labels are still designing elaborate packaging for physical releases. Pitchfork Advance allows you to have an experience with the music that’s immersive in the way that engaging with a vinyl LP would be”.